Events

Book Reading and Signing

Saturday, November 10 2012 2:00 PM - 4:00 PM

In honor of National Family Caregivers Month, three area libraries will be hosting readings and book signings for "Inside the Dementia Epidemic: A Daughter’s Memoir" by local author Martha Stettinius. Dundee Library will host a reading Saturday, November 10th at 2:00 p.m. (32 Water Street, Dundee); the Watkins Glen Public Library will hold a reading Wednesday, November 14th at noon for their “Books Sandwiched In” program (610 S Decatur Street, Watkins Glen); and the Penn Yan Public Library will hold a reading Tuesday, November 27th at 6:30 p.m. (214 Main Street Penn Yan). The events are free and open to the public.

National Family Caregivers Month is a time to thank, support, educate and empower family caregivers. Sixty-five million family caregivers in the U.S. provide essential but unpaid care to family members and friends. “Inside the Dementia Epidemic: A Daughter’s Memoir” is the unflinching and hopeful story of Stettinius’s journey into caregiving, and offers an unprecedented look into the challenges of Alzheimer's care. Stettinius’s book has achieved national recognition, and was praised in the Library Journal as “honest, compassionate, and informed” and “compelling reading.”

Stettinius shares the lessons she's learned over seven years of caregiving at home, in assisted living, a “memory care” facility, and a nursing home—lessons not just about how she learned to negotiate the world of elder care, but about how caregiving can strengthen relationships.

Like many adult children of aging parents, Stettinius found herself suddenly filling the role of caregiver when her 72-year-old mother couldn’t balance her checkbook, cook, or clean. The remote lakeside home where her mother had lived alone for 25 years overflowed with garbage and recyclables. Despite their challenging relationship, Stettinius, age 40 at the time, moved her mother to her family’s small home. It was not long after that that Stettinius learned her first lesson as a member of the “sandwich generation”—caregiving is a job, and as a caregiver she needed information and support.

After reading selections from her book at each of these events, Stettinius will talk briefly about the free services offered to caregivers through the non-profit National Family Caregivers Association, for which she serves as a volunteer representative for New York State. Stettinius will share NFCA materials and other resources for caregivers, and her book will be available for purchase.

For more information about “Inside the Dementia Epidemic: A Daughter’s Memoir,” visit www.insidedementia.com.